Abstract

This study explored women’s strategies for living with multiple sclerosis andwhether/how they maintained satisfaction with life amidst loss of physicalfunction. The family context emerged as a complex influence on participants’process of managing illness and identity. Four narratives are examined,provided by women in mid-life, with husbands and teenage/adult children.Participants described many positive strategies for resisting domination byillness, whilst also revealing numerous struggles, particularly in relation tobeing a mother and wife who has MS. The narratives could not be easilyclassified as they contained many contrasts and tensions. For example, thewomen described receiving much care from family members, but also clearlyprovided much care in return; they saw themselves as having special needs butalso great strengths; they often presented themselves as strong, but at certainpoints admitted being overwhelmed by their situations; some oscillatedbetween seeing their illness, or their families, as the most stressful aspect oflife. The stress of illness varied to some extent according to the responses offamily members. Participants accepted that MS inevitably affected everyone inthe family system, but they simultaneously worked to protect other familymembers and to minimise its intrusiveness. Coping with illness did not onlyreflect individually chosen strategies. The women drew upon stories handeddown from parents and other family members about their ways of confrontingadversity. The numerous tensions within the women’s stories of coping withMS show that illness is socially embedded and illuminate the complexity oflives and social identity.

Item Type:

Book Chapter

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